I had a moment or two of despair as I was watching Ōpaki today.
Pānia Papa was teaching the three guests te reo Māori surrounding drink etiquette.
I think the key lesson, though, was the use of the word rānei...which is the Māori version of "or".
It's put at the end of the sentence instead of the middle.
So...I think it goes something like....
He ti, he kawhe...rānei.
I have a lot to learn still.
I've kind of made a rule that I won't write Māori things unless I know them...(vs just sticking things into Google translate) But I'm grudgingly allowing myself to look up spelling/macrons or check Google Translate to see if they think I'm right or wrong. Because I do that with English. I mean not the translating, but I do often have to check spelling.
(And there's also the very helpful online Māori dictionary!)
Anyway...let me get to my point.
The Ōpaki household worked on coffee vs tea; then later also added Milo to the mix. And something else? I forget what.
They also did kākāriki tea(Green tea) vs some other tea? Gumboot? I don't know if that's another name for Black Tea. Or some weird Down Under kind of thing.
Googled.
It seems to be a specific New Zealand thing. And it's Black Tea.
IS New Zealand referred to as Down Under???
There was a poster on Flight of the Conchords, but maybe it's only a Flight of the Conchords thing.
I will look into this later.
Back to Ōpaki.
They did huka. Sugar.
And more rānei work, because there was two types of sugars: huka mā and huka māori.
Māori isn't just the name of a people but also a descriptor word meaning things like normal, fresh, natural...And in the huka case: raw.
Both guests chose huka mā vs huka māori.
Back up....
I should mention there are three guests. And one guest was assigned the responsibility of doing the asking/offering/serving to the other two.
Both of the being-served guests asked for tahi (one) sugar.
Then they did miraka which is milk.
More rānei learning. Because they had cow milk and almond milk.
And finally I get to the point that made me sad.
They asked one of the guests what milk they wanted but then skipped over the other guest.
I think it might have been because the first guest made a few mistakes with answering. So they all might have gotten sidetracked.
Or it could have just been time for the break/transition and off camera they offered the milk choice.
But I had a depressing hyper-empathy moment where I imagined being in the situation.
I imagined being in a hyper-sensitive mood and feeling very ignored or forgotten.
And I might have spiraled and thought about how I don't deserve milk. And it's not these people here thinking I don't deserve milk. It's very often that all the people feel I don't deserve what other people deserve.
(I should note for accuracy-sake, I don't put milk in my coffee or tea)
I might sit there with tears in my eyes hoping that no one notices and no one asks me what's wrong. Because if they ask me, I'll start crying-crying.
Hopefully, the guests on Ōpaki are more emotionally stable than me.
* * *
I'm not hyper-sensitive all the time.
Hopefully I'm not even that way most of the time.
It's also probably more of a straw-that-broke-the-camel's-back thing. (I wonder what the Māori say for that sentiment).
If I was having a good day, so far, I'd probably not be bothered that they forgot to offer me miraka.
BUT...later if something else negative happened. Like they looked tense with all the language mistakes I was making, I'd probably think back to the miraka and have a self-esteem spiral.
That being said, so far, Pānia Papa has never looked annoyed at anyone's mistakes. She is a very patient and fun teacher.
And as a viewer of the show, guest-mistakes are probably the most valuable moments because then things are repeated, slowed down, etc.
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